Laura and I had our first date in a mid May. Early on during this date I provided full disclosure: I was to leave for Berlin for over two months in late June, returning at the end of August, before heading out again in late September for California to begin my PhD....

Less than two months after meeting, Juan Pablo and I found the Atlantic Ocean between us. He had received funding to travel to Berlin to do an intensive German language study program. For the first couple weeks he was gone, he wooed me with eloquently crafted emails...